THE INDIANS OF THE CORDILLERAS. 345 



regulated the conduct of the first Incas (kings, or lords), was 

 followed by their successors, and under their mild sceptre a 

 community gradually extended itself along the surface of the 

 broad table-land, which asserted its superiority over the sur- 

 rounding tribes. 



Fine cities sprang up in different parts of their kingdom, 

 connected by well-formed roads, suited to the nature of the 

 country. Their capital was Cuzco, at some distance to the 

 north of the lake, in latitude 1 4° south ; while the city next 

 in importance to it was Quito, in a rich valley, beneath the 

 equator. These cities were connected by two roads ; one 

 passing over the grand plateau, and the other along low- 

 lands at the borders of the ocean. The first was conducted 

 over mountain -ridges, frequently buried in snow ; galleries 

 were cut through the living rock ; rivers crossed by suspen- 

 sion-bridges; precipices scaled by stairways; and deep ravines 

 were filled up with solid masonry. 



This road was upwards of fifteen hundred miles long ; and 

 stone pillars, to serve the purpose of mile-stones, were erected 

 at intervals of about a league along the route. Its breadth 

 was about twenty feet. In some places it was covered with 

 heavy flagstones ; and in others, with a bituminous cement, 

 which time has rendered harder than the stone itself. Where 

 the ravines had been filled with solid masonry, the moun- 

 tain torrents have eaten a way beneath it, leaving the super- 

 incumbent mass still spanning the valley like an arch. The 

 suspension-bridges — instead of which wretchedly inferior ones 

 of wood are now used — were composed of the tough fibres of 

 the maguey ; a species of osier, possessing an extraordinary 

 degree of tenacity and strength. The fibres were woven into 

 cables of the thickness of a man's body, which were then 



